


Who we are

by creativityobsessed



Series: Who We Are [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Origins Spoilers, Volpina spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-05-29 05:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6362224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creativityobsessed/pseuds/creativityobsessed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Master Fu tells Marinette the book was last seen in the hands of Papillon, she goes into a tailspin. Could Adrien really be her nemesis?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a tumblr post that I have since lost - if it was yours, please speak up, so I can give you credit.

Marinette steps cautiously into the room, a little shy of meeting someone Tikki speaks of with such reverence. 

 

“Hello Ladybug,” an old man says in a creaky voice, “It’s very nice to meet you properly.”

 

“It’s  _ you _ ,” she gasps. “Wait. I told you Tikki was my cat, and you knew?” He chuckles.

 

“I knew. But it wasn’t time yet.” They stare at each other in silence for a few moments.

 

“Tikki says you have something for me?” He asks finally.

 

“She does?” Marinette looks at Tikki, surprised. How had she already told him? “I mean, yes, I do,” she recovered quickly. She kneels, setting her bag on the floor and holding the book out to him. 

 

He draws back in surprise before gingerly reaching out to take it. He flips through the pages gently, murmuring “Where did you find this?”

 

“Her friend-” Tikki started, but Marinette reached out and grabbed her, cutting her off.

 

“Oh, I, er, a friend, I mean, I- uh, I just found it! Tikki says it’s important?”

 

“Very important,” he muses, “In the wrong hands it could destroy us. And I must say, we were almost certain it  _ was _ in the wrong hands. Last I heard of it, we believed Papillon had it.”

 

“What?” Marinette almost shouts, “Well, if he did he must have lost it, or… something.”

 

“I suppose,” he replies, “though one would think that if Papillon had it, he wouldn’t let it be lost. Ah well, it has been returned to its rightful owners and that is what matters. Thank you, Ladybug.”

 

“You’re welcome, uh…”

 

“You may call me Master Fu.”

 

“Yes, well, you’re welcome Master Fu. I’ve gotta go now, have a nice day!” And with that she scrambled backwards out of his room.

 

***

“Marinette, why didn’t you tell him where we got it?” Tikki asked. They were alone in Marinette’s attic room, and Marinette was doing her best to focus on homework.

 

“Because it’s not important, Tikki. Besides, we stole it. He surely wouldn’t approve.”

 

“But Marinette, that’s exactly why it’s important! If someone just lost it then maybe it wasn’t Papillon, but you  _ stole _ it!”

 

“Are you saying you think that  _ Adrien _ is Papillon?”

 

“I’m saying you can’t rule it out. Just because you have a crush on him doesn’t mean he couldn’t be!” Marinette laughs.

 

“Oh, Tikki, come on, he’s too short!”

 

“You don’t know that! Think about it - Volpina never saw Papillon, only the drawing in the book, and all of those drawings are of adults, so of course she would make an illusion of an adult Papillon.”

 

“I don’t know... I still can’t see Adrien-”

 

“And what about the fact that every  _ one _ of your classmates has been akumatized?”

 

“Except me,” Marinette interrupts.

 

“Except you, and…?” Tikki waits for Marinette to fill in the blank. 

 

“Me and Adrien,” Marinette sighs, resigned, “You really think that he could be that evil?”

 

“It’s not a matter of evil, Mari, people do bad things for reasons that aren’t always that terrible.”

 

“So what do you want me to do about it, Tikki? Go up to him and say ‘oh hey,  by the way, I’m Ladybug, are you my evil nemesis’?” Marinette lashes out.

 

“Please, Marinette, take this seriously. You and Chat Noir have to figure out who Papillon is,  _ now _ , before he figures out who you are.” Tikki zooms in close, looking Marinette in the eye. Marinette holds her stare a moment before blinking and slumping back in her chair.

  
“Ok,” she says, “You win. Not that I’m agreeing with you. I still think it couldn’t possibly be Adrien. But we’ll work on figuring it out.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette returns to school after finding out Adrien may be Papillon.

Marinette is exhausted when she gets to school. She barely slept, tossing and turning, trying to make her idea of Adrien match up with an Adrien who might be Papillon. She can’t make it work though - Papillon is full of such… such hatred, and that kind of darkness couldn’t possibly be hidden, could it?

 

She thinks back to the first time they met. Well, not the first time, because she hated him the first time. But the first time they got along. Adrien had offered her his umbrella, because it was raining. It wouldn’t have lasted long, and she could have waited to head home, but he gave it to her anyway, because he was a gentleman. More than once he’d surprised her with his sense of honor, and kindness, and humility, especially considering he was almost more famous than Chloé, and  _ she _ couldn’t shut up about it for more than 10 seconds at once.

 

Marinette swallows her smile, and bites the inside of her cheek. She can’t keep thinking about why she likes him, because that won’t help her prove him innocent. If he is innocent. 

 

She shakes her head forcibly, biting her cheek harder. She can’t think like that. He’s innocent.  _ Of course _ he’s innocent. There’s no way he could…

 

And yet. She thinks of all the classmates who have been akumatized. None of them were mean of their own will, but all of them had that part in them. Even Rose, the sweetest, most unselfish of them all had a dark side, one that was in some ways scarier than all the rest. Adrien is a real person - he must have a dark side too, even if the only side she’s ever seen is the Prince Charming. And really, how well does she know him anyways? They never really talk outside of school, and when they do it’s always around Alya and Nino. And frankly Alya and Nino deserve awards for not making awkward third and fourth wheel problems. Well, Alya does it because she knows Marinette has, no,  _ had _ a crush on Adrien and was liable to walk into a building if not steered around it, but Nino was pretty good too. In fact, Marinette suspects Alya told him something--

 

_ No! _ She screams mentally,  _ I have got to stop letting myself indulge in this! What happens if he  _ is _ Papillon, and you haven’t gotten over this crush, huh? He won’t be as easy to defeat as one of his akumas, and you  _ can’t _ hesitate because you like him. _

 

“You okay there, girl?” Alya asks as she slides into the seat next to Marinette’s.

“Yeah, fine,” Marinette grumbles.

 

“Somebody’s got a case of the grumps today! Did something happen?” She pushes.

 

“No, Alya, I’m fine. Leave me alone please,” Marinette says, a little more forcefully, before slumping down to bury her face in her arms.

 

“O-kay,” Alya says, sounding skeptical, but Marinette ignores it. It’s not like she can explain anyways.  _ Hey, Alya, guess what? You know how you’ve been desperate to find out who Ladybug is? Well, it’s me, but here’s the more important thing - I think Adrien is Papillon, can you help me find out? _ Sure, that would go over well. 

 

What she needs is to talk to Chat. For some reason, whenever she can’t find an answer to something, he’s got it. That’s what makes them such good complements of each other. But she has no idea who he really is -  _ she _ is the one who insists on staying anonymous, fat lot of good it’s doing her now - and when he’s not Chat, their phones don’t work. Even if she became Ladybug, there was no guarantee he’d be suited up at the same time, unless they were fighting an akuma, in which case she would have no time to tell him about Papillon and Tikki’s suspicions.

 

“Morning, Marinette! Everything okay?”

 

Marinette’s blood runs cold. Normally, she would be ecstatic to hear that voice, and that he noticed and cared that she seemed upset, but after last night, she can’t handle facing Adrien. If she doesn’t act like normal, he’ll know something is up, and he’ll want to know what, and because she’s a total klutz around him, she’ll end up telling him everything.  _ Plus _ , if she acts weird, and he  _ is _ Papillon, he might well put two and two together with his missing book ( _ NOT his, we don’t know that yet, stop thinking about it as his _ ) and realize that she’s Ladybug. 

 

But it’s taken too long for her to answer, and she doesn’t have time to decide before he places a hand on her shoulder. Yesterday she would have loved this, but today, she panics, nearly screams, and knocks his hand away.

 

“I’m fine,” she says, trying to keep her voice level. Adrien looks hurt.

 

“You’re… but you--” he stutters. Her face turns red with embarrassment, and she narrows her eyes trying to keep herself from tears.

 

“I’m  _ fine _ ,” she repeats through clenched teeth, “Leave me alone. Please.”

 

“I-- okay,” he responds, his eyes wide and his face pale. He keeps his eyes on her for a few moments before he slumps into the seat in front of her.

 

“What the Hell was--” Alya hisses, but right at that moment the teacher sweeps in and the bell rings. Marinette turns away from Alya, pretending like she didn’t hear, and stares resolutely out the window.

  
She doesn’t learn a thing all day.


	3. Chapter 3

Marinette does a pretty good job at avoiding everyone all morning, but at lunch her time is up.

 

“What the Hell was that?” Alya demands as she sits down. Marinette sighs. She should have just taken her lunch to the locker room, or out to the courtyard.

 

“What was what?” She asks with what she hopes is a smile. Maybe playing innocent will get her a pass.

 

“Oh, come on, girl, don’t give me that. You  _ flipped _ on Adrien. What did he do to you?” She tears a piece off her baguette and dips it in the fondue before taking a bite.

 

What did he do? Only betray her in the worst way possible - maybe. But she can’t say that, so she settles for “Nothing.”

 

“Oh no, that was  _ not _ nothing. You have been crushing on him for months. What did he say? Do I need to beat his ass?”

 

Marinette chuckles. “No, Alya, please don’t. I’m just having a bad day, okay? I--” what else can she say? “I got some bad news last night, and I just wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.”

 

“Bad news? Was it your grandpa?”

 

“Did I say ‘wasn’t in the mood to talk about it?’ I meant, I’m  _ not _ in the mood to talk about it.” Marinette cuts her off before she can start pushing for more details. “Look, I gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll see you in class.” Her tray is only half-empty, but she just grabs the baguette and her pear and leaves. 

 

“Marinette!” Alya calls after her, but she doesn’t respond. Instead, she almost runs to the locker room, avoiding the eyes of everyone she passes. Once inside, she slams the door behind her and then slumps down against it.

 

“What am I supposed to do, Tikki?” She wails. Tikki flies out from her purse and hovers in front of her.

 

“You’ve got to get it together! If you keep acting weird around everyone they’re going to figure it out!”

 

“Yeah, sure, I’m having a bad day and the first thing they’re going to think is ‘Hey, maybe she’s Ladybug!’” Marinette says sarcastically.

 

“Marinette, you know you are bad at secrets,” Tikki scolds, “The next time someone asks what’s wrong, you might just cave and tell them everything,  _ especially _ if it’s Alya or Adrien!” Her words sting.

 

“That’s not true!” Marinette yells, tears brimming in her eyes. “I’ve kept this secret on my own for almost a  _ year _ , Tikki, and I’ve been all alone. Why don’t you trust me yet?” The tears spill over and she sniffles, wishing she could get away from Tikki.

 

“I  _ do _ trust you, but you know it’s true! Please, Marinette, trust  _ me _ . You need to get a hold on this!”

 

“Oh, just leave me alone Tikki!” Marinette says.

 

“But Marinette-”

 

Marinette suddenly remembers when she first got Tikki, and how she disappeared when Marinette took off her earrings. Before Tikki can argue with her anymore, she reaches up and tugs the earrings off, dropping them in her bag, and Tikki disappears with a pop.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short chapter. There will be a longer chapter eventually.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette decides to ask Chat for help in determining whether her "friend" is Papillon, and he has some excellent advice.

When she gets home, Marinette blows past both her parents and goes straight up to her room. Locking the door behind her she flops onto the bed with a sigh.

“What am I gonna do, Tikki?” she asks, before she remembers that she sent Tikki away. For some reason thinking of Tikki brings tears to her eyes. She’s gotten used to having Tikki around - they’d been together for nearly a year - but she is so tired of Tikki telling her what to do. Even though Tikki spends all day every day with her, she experiences the day from the inside of a bag. _She doesn’t_ know _Adrien, the way that I do,_ she thinks, _He_ can’t _be Papillon!_

 _But how well do you really know him?_ an annoying voice asks in the back of her mind.

“Ugh!” she shouts, hitting her fists against her pillow. She’s going around in circles. She’d give anything to have someone to talk to, but nobody but Tikki knows she’s Ladybug, and without that information, none of her problem would make sense. Nobody warned her that being a superhero would be so _lonely_.

The sensible part of her brain argues back, _The superhero work itself isn’t lonely - you’ve got chat noir_. She rolls over with a groan. She still doesn’t have any way of contacting Chat Noir when they’re not fighting a battle, and her best lead was Tikki. Not that Tikki was being helpful. She was more interested in placing blame than helping solve the problem.

Marinette sits up, swiping angrily at the tears on her face, before stomping over to the computer to pull up the Ladyblog. It’s mostly dedicated to Ladybug, of course, but maybe there’s some clue to who Chat was that she can use to--

The page has barely loaded when she hears the screams. _Not NOW_ , she thinks, before realizing this is exactly what she needs. If there’s screaming, that means an akuma, and if there’s an akuma then Chat Noir will show up to help. She pounces on her bookbag and begins digging for the earrings. It takes far longer than she expects it to - she finds one, but not the other, but apparently that’s not enough to get Tikki to appear. Finally she dumps the entire contents of the bag onto her bed and plucks the second earring from the pile. As she threads it through her ear, Tikki appears with a slight pop.

“Marinette, how _could_ you--” she starts, but Marinette interrupts.

“No time for that, Tikki, transform me!”

***

By the time she joins the battle, the akuma victim has torn up several blocks worth of houses. According to Chat, the poor child is upset about some kind of rejection - it isn’t clear exactly what - and the akuma was probably inside the teddy bear she carries.

“Okay, listen Chat,” Ladybug starts, but the child’s power does something, and suddenly she can’t speak. Or was it that she couldn’t hear?

Chat rolls his eyes and pulls out the phone in his baton. He types in a few words and hands it to her.

“Apparently someone told her never to speak to them again. Her power is making it so nobody can speak to anyone again.”

  
“Seriously?” Ladybug mouths, pulling a face. Chat just shrugs, types a few more seconds and then hands her “It wears off if you get too far away.”

“But I need to talk to you!” she says, but no sound comes out. Chat smirks and gestures at her yoyo. She takes it out and switches to the phone.

“We need to talk. Stick around for a minute after?” She passes her yoyo over, and he nods.

 _Ok,_ thinks Marinette, _now to solving the problem at hand_.

The fight is one of the more difficult ones they’ve had. Any time they get too close to the victim, they lose the power of speech, which also means they lose their special abilities. And “too close” keeps expanding - it wouldn’t have taken more than a few hours to cover all of Paris.They have to take turns getting far enough away to call on their special powers, and Chat apparently had a hard time keeping from touching anything on his way back in.

Finally, the akuma vanquished and the child restored to her former state of, well, not quite happiness, but the closest they can get, they congratulate each other on a job well done. As Chat turns to go, Ladybug calls after him.

“Wait!”

“I’m about to turn into a pumpkin, m’lady, and it looks like you are too!” Chat says, but he turns and waits anyway.

“I need your help with something. Can you meet me at Pere Lachaise tonight? Say 8 o’clock?”

“You need my help? Are you sure you don’t just want to see me, m’lady?” Chat counters suavely.

“Please?” is all Ladybug can say, in a very quiet voice. If he says no, then she truly is alone.

“Of course, m’lady,” he says, solemnly. “Until tonight, then.” And with that he takes off into the streets of Paris.

***

Marinette is glad that Tikki is always exhausted after transformations, because that means she can put off the argument that seems inevitable. Instead, she sticks Tikki back in her bag with a cookie for when she wakes up and tries unsuccessfully to concentrate on homework. It feels wrong somehow to be meeting up with Chat on purpose for something other than fighting an akuma. If someone were to spot them - but that’s why she chose Pere Lachaise. The place is huge, and far away from their usual area, since most of the akuma show up in that one particular neighborhood. Hopefully nobody who sees them will think anything of it. Hopefully nobody will see them.

Finally, at quarter to 8, she turns out the lights and calls to Tikki. Seconds later she’s on her way to meet Chat.

***

“M’lady,” he purrs.

“Where have you been?” she hisses, “You’re _late_.”

“Only a little bit! Turns out it’s much harder to sneak out when there isn’t an akuma causing havoc,” he says.

“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that.

“So, what do you need, m’lady?”

“I--” now that the time has come, she freezes up. Tell him too much and he’ll be able to figure out who she is. Not enough and he’ll accuse her of manufacturing excuses to see him.

“I have a friend-- a good friend-- who has, I mean, had, something that belonged to-- well, I mean, the last person who had it was--” she swallows, “Papillon.” She sniffles and looks at the ground, her eyes filling with tears. She doesn’t want to cry in front of Chat, but the whole situation is just so _terrible_.

“You… _what?!_ ” Chat replies finally.

“I know, but it _can’t_ be him, it really, really can’t. I don’t know what I’d do if--” she trails off, and Chat is at her side instantly, an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs.

“No, it’s _not_ ,” she insists. “I can’t act like I don’t know he might be-- I _can’t_ , I’m terrible at acting, but I can’t ask him either, because if he’s _not_ … you know, then I’ll be telling him who I am.”

Chat guides her to sit on a nearby bench, rubbing her shoulders gently.

“Okay, we can solve this, right? What do we know about _Papillon_? What can you use to prove that he’s not your friend?” he asks eventually.

“We don’t know anything, that’s the problem! He could be anyone!” Ladybug half-sobs.

“Well, that’s not true. Okay, you’re right he could be anyone, but we do know _something_ . We know that he coaches his victims,” he pauses to think a moment, “ _So_ , whenever there’s an akuma, he’d have to be transformed, just like us. Which _means_ , the next time there’s a victim, you can check!” Chat seems very pleased with this solution.

“Check what?” Ladybug says, not quite following.

“The next time you hear about an akuma, I promise I will hold him off as long as I can, so you can find your friend! Once you find him, you can come back and help me fend off the akuma, and life can get back to normal,” Chat explains.

“That’s… that’s actually a really good idea,” Ladybug says. On an impulse, she throws her arms around Chat.

  
“Thanks. I knew I could count on you, Chat.”


	5. Chapter 5

When Marinette gets home she checks the lock and lays down in her Ladybug suit. She still doesn’t want to deal with making up with Tikki, and if she can fall asleep before the suit wears off she might be able to put it off a little longer.

 

It’s a nice idea, but when she wakes up in the morning Tikki is hovering right over her face, arms crossed. 

 

“What was the big idea?” Tikki demanded.

 

“I’m sorry, Tikki,” Marinette apologized, “But I just… I don’t know, I wanted to think for a while without feeling you judging me.”

 

“I’m not  _ judging _ you, Marinette, I give you advice,” Tikki objects. Marinette just pulls a face.

 

“Look, I said I’m sorry, okay. Can we just leave it at that for now? At least until I get this whole… Papillon thing solved?”

 

“That might take  _ ages _ .” 

 

“Well, okay, yes, it could, but we came up with a plan!” Marinette spends the next few minutes explaining Chat’s suggestion.

 

“You’re going to shirk your duties just to find out if your crush is okay?” Tikki asks.

 

“Well, when you put it  _ that _ way it sounds awful, but really, Tikki, with that kind of lead I would have to check it out, whether it’s Adrien or not!”

 

Tikki thinks another minute before pointing out “You might not be able to find him because you don’t know where he is.”

“True,” Marinette says slowly, “But lots of these attacks happen during the school day. I can just wait until one happens at school and see what he does.”

 

Eventually Tikki agrees, after helping Marinette iron out the details - how long she should wait before going to help Chat, where she’s most likely to find Adrien when he’s not at school, etc.

 

***

Marinette is in luck. The very next akuma happened in the middle of the day, right at her school. Apparently some year 10 was being teased about not having hit puberty yet, so he turned into a villain that could change size at will. It’s unclear to Marinette how exactly that would help him get their miraculouses, but she isn’t worrying about that right now. Instead, she has her eyes fixed on Adrien - at least when she isn’t ducking behind Alya so that he doesn’t notice she’s staring. Her heart sinks as she watches him nonchalantly slink through the door, looking around to make sure nobody is watching. They aren’t, of course - they’re all focused on the akuma. But she sees him, and just the idea that he might be sneaking away to change into Papillon makes her want to cry. 

 

Just to be sure, she sneaks out behind him. She just barely sees him slide into the boys bathroom.  _ Maybe he thinks he’s safe there! _ , she thinks,  _ or maybe strange size-changing super villains are his personal nightmare, or maybe he just has to pee! _ She knows she’s rationalizing but she still doesn’t want to believe it, not until she sees it with her own two eyes.

 

Seconds later, there’s a green flash of light from inside, kind of like the red one Tikki makes when she flies into her earrings. It’s small - you’d have to know what you were looking for to see it - but Marinette recognizes it at once, and her heart sinks even lower.  _ Maybe a trick of the light? _ she thinks, so she takes a deep breath and pushes the door to the bathroom open. 

 

“Adrien?” she calls. If he answers then she can make something up - the teacher wanted to make sure he was safe from the akuma or something. But the bathroom is empty. Adrien is gone.

 

It’s all Marinette can do to not curl up in a ball and cry, but now that she knows, she needs to get back to Chat and help him vanquish this akuma. 

 

“Tikki,” she starts but isn’t even able to finish the command before the tears start falling. Tikki snuggles Marinette’s cheek, and then wipes away some of the tears.

“We’ll get through this, okay? I know we will. You are strong, Marinette.” Marinette nods firmly, swiping the tears away from her cheeks, before finally asking, “Tikki? Transform me?”

 

***

The battle has moved to the streets of Paris by the time she gets there. Chat calls out “Milady! Just in time! How goes it?” but the momentary distraction allows the now-giant student to take a swipe at him that sends him flying several blocks away. Hit with sudden inspiration made of desperation, Marinette calls out to the poor boy.

 

“Papillon!” she yells, glancing around to make sure that Adrien hasn’t returned yet. “I know you can hear me! I want to talk.” The poor akuma’d boy freezes, and moths start pouring out of every orifice. Marinette looks around, worried that Chat will see, but he seems to still be unconscious. 

 

“Not now!” she shrieks anyway, not wanting to risk him waking up, “In person. Tomorrow.” She give Papillon an address and time, and he agrees.

 

No sooner does Papillon give his word, than Marinette plucks the picture holding the akuma out of the poor boy’s pocket and rips it in half. She hears Papillon wail “NO!” as if from a distance and smiles ruefully. Talking was a good distraction, but she doubts it will work again. Luckily, she got what she wanted anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence - I had a couple weeks of finals, and a bad case of writer’s block! This update is on the short side but I had a bit of a brainstorm today, and you can probably expect more updates over the weekend. Anyways, I know some of you will probably notice the gaps in Marinette’s logic - I’m writing on the assumption that she works at about the same level of logic that she does in the show, which means she misses some really important observations that would save her a lot of heartache.


	6. Chapter 6

Marinette shivers. It’s not so much the cold, but the feel of the place. She’d asked Papillon to meet her somewhere far away from prying eyes - but that meant that after dark it was full of shadows and, well, deeper shadows. She shivers again, a tingle running down her spine to meet one coming up from her feet. 

 

“Hello Ladybug,” she hears from behind her, and she whirls, her hands going protectively to her earrings. She can’t see anyone there, though.

 

“You’ll forgive me if I didn’t show up with my real body,” he continues, and she suddenly notices a moth so dark that she can only just make it out on the dark pavement. Looking even more carefully she saw that it was part of a swarm, outlining a dark body in inky blackness against the backlighting of the streetlamps “But you’ll understand why I don’t entirely trust your offer to talk. Especially since your first instinct wasn’t to trust me.” He gestures toward her ears - or his moths do.

 

Marinettes sighs and forces herself to relax. If he's not physically here then at least he can't hurt her too much. 

 

“What did you want?” He demands when she fails to speak for several moments. 

 

“I- um,” she starts but falters, “I wanted to tell you that- that I know who you are. In real life I mean.” She watches him carefully but there aren't enough moths to give much detail to his face so she can't tell what he's thinking. 

 

“And what were you planning on doing with that information?” he asks finally. 

 

“I don't know yet,” she admits, “but I do know that… That this isn't you. What happened? Why do you do it?” She can tell that this wasn't what he was expecting. 

 

“I do it because I have to,” he says eventually, “because it's the only way to get your miraculouses.”

 

“Why?” She demands, “why do you need our miraculouses? You have your own!”

 

What little she can see of his face crumples in confusion and he asks “you don't know much about your miraculous, do you?”

 

“No,” she admits, “I'm still kind of new to this.” He sighs. 

 

“Well, your kwami should have been the one to tell you. But not all miraculouses are created equal. Oh they all have power, but yours and Chat’s, they are special. Separately they seem the same as all the rest, but they are opposites in every way and so combined they represent the ultimate power.”

 

Marinette’s insides wither. This is not what she wanted to hear. Adrien was hunting her and chat just for power? It doesn't make sense and it doesn't add up to the Adrien she knows. 

 

“But why?” She asks, hoping beyond hope he'll give a different answer, “you don't need that much power, you really don't. You are enough” She hates the way her voice quivers when she says it. 

 

“You don't understand,” he says, dropping his gaze to the pavement for the first time in the entire conversation. “I- I lost someone, and I never got a chance to say goodbye. With your miraculouses…” He trails off, but Marinette can fill in the blanks. 

 

It all makes sense now. She doesn't know much about Adrien’s mother but if her death was sudden, like an accident, then he probably didn't get a chance to say goodbye. And her death must have been recent because Adrien looked almost exactly the same in the family portrait she'd seen. This “ultimate” power probably had some way of contacting the dead or something - which he'd found out by reading the book she'd stolen from him. 

 

She can feel tears prickling her eyes as she thinks through all of this. It was maybe misguided to akumatise some poor victim to get what he wants, but the end goal is… Well not noble, but relatable. It couldn't be that bad. 

 

“If…” She starts, suddenly finding it hard to breathe, “if I offered to help you get Chat’s miraculous-” this finally surprises him. 

 

“You would help me?” He interrupts. 

 

“Under two conditions, yes.”

 

“What are your conditions?” He asks. 

 

“1) that you return the miraculouses as soon as you are done with them, and 2) that you will let  _ me _ be the one getting chat’s ring. I don't want him getting hurt.” Marinette’s confidence rises as she lists her demands. She knows Adrien. He's a reasonable person. He'll say yes. 

 

Papillon thinks for a moment and then nods his head sharply. “Very well.”

 

Just then Marinette's yoyo rings. She glances apologetically at Papillon, who gestures “go ahead.” She turns away slightly, trying to keep an eye on him but at the same time to have a private conversation.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Milady, where are you?” Chat asked, “I woke up and you were gone!”

 

“Sorry, Chat, I had to, um, go take care of something. I got the akuma though!” she adds, quickly.

 

“Did you find him?” Chat asks. Marinette sighs.

 

“No, I didn’t.”

 

“Oh. Well, maybe next time!” Chat says, trying to cheer her up.

 

“Um. Maybe. Listen, now is not a good time, can we meet up? Same place and time?” she asks.

 

“Sure!” he says, and he might be about to say something else but she hangs up on him. She turns back to Papillon, but he has already gone.

***

She has almost half an hour before her meeting with Chat, but rather than go home, she wanders the rooftops of the city. It’s late but there are plenty of people out still. She sat for a while halfway up the Eiffel Tower, watching the crowds in the parks below. She smiles at a small child asking her father to be picked up, to see over the crowd. This is what she’s trying to protect, and she knows that teaming up with Papillon is… well, an unconventional way of doing that.  _ But knowing that Papillon is Adrien _ , she thinks,  _ the fastest way to stop him akumatising people is to give him what he needs. Especially since all he wants is to talk to his mom again. Then maybe Papillon will leave him alone _ .

 

With a start she realizes that ever since she found out that Adrien was Papillon she’d started thinking of him the way she thinks of the akumatized victims - like Voldemort and Quirrell, they are two separate people who happen to be inhabiting the same body. Intellectually, she knows that can’t be right - Papillon has a miraculous, same as her and Chat - but she’s hopeful that once she satisfies Papillon’s wishes, Adrien will return.

 

She sighs and jumps down. Notre Dame has just struck the hour which means she’ll have to hurry to make her meeting with Chat.

 

This time Chat is waiting for her.

 

“Now  _ you’re _ late, milady,” he says, with a cheeky grin.

 

“Sorry, Chat,” she apologizes. His face falls at her tone.

 

“What’s up?” he asks, more seriously.

 

“I-- I didn’t find him,” Marinette says.

 

“Yeah, you said. But maybe you just missed him. We can try again,” Chat encourages.

 

“Well… no. I, okay, I did find him, and I followed him, and…” she trails off, concentrating on not crying.

 

“You followed him, and...?”

 

“He’s Papillon, Chat. I  _ know _ he is,” she stops trying now and the tears overflow.

 

“O- uh- okay. Well…” Chat doesn’t seem to know what to do, so he just pats her on the shoulder awkwardly.

 

“He must not be that great of a friend if he’s secretly a supervillain,” he tries joking, but that only makes her cry harder.

“What do you want to do?” he asks, gently, a few minutes later. This finally gets through to her.

 

“Sorry,” she says, sniffling, “I’m better now. It’s just been a long day, you know?” He smiles sympathetically.

 

“I’ve already talked to him,” she says, “I asked him to meet while you were unconscious after the fight. He’s really not that bad. He’s… he’s like an akuma victim. He’s hurting, and he thinks that our miraculouses will help.”

 

“How?” Chat asks. Marinette debates what to tell him. It is, after all, Adrien’s story.

 

“He wasn’t entirely clear,” she says finally, “but he’s lost someone dear to him, and he thinks that he can do something about it with our miraculouses.”

 

“Resurrect the dead?!” Chat yelps.

 

“No, no, I’m sure that’s not it,” Marinette says, “I’m sure he doesn’t want that. That’s not like him.” Chat looks like he doesn’t quite believe her, but she pushes on.

 

“I want to help him. I think we should give him our miraculouses.”

 

“You want to  _ what now?! _ ” Chat demands.

 

“I think we should help him! He’s promised to give them back as soon as he’s done. I don’t see the harm.”

 

“Are you  _ serious _ ? There’s a  _ lot _ of harm. He didn’t even tell you why he wants them!”

 

“Well, he said it would give him the ultimate power, and that would help him with his… person he lost.”

 

“And the fact that he called it ‘ultimate power’ didn’t bother you?!” Chat demands.

 

“No! I  _ know _ him Chat, he wouldn’t do anything awful.”

 

“You have a crush on him, don’t you? And you’re blinded by your crush.”

 

“What? No! I really think we should help!”

 

“Would you think that if it was anyone else?”

 

“But it _ isn’t _ anyone else, Chat, it’s A- a friend!” she exclaims, nearly saying Adrien’s name in her anger. “If it were your friend, would you help him?” Chat shakes his head.

“I’d at  _ least _ ask for more information!” he shouts. “I’m not just handing over my miraculous, and that is final.”

 

“Then… Then you leave me no choice,” Marinette says as she finally makes her decision, “In the next fight, you and I will be on opposite sides.”

 

She doesn’t even wait for a response, sending her yoyo flying and leaping away.

***

Halfway home, Marinette ducks into an alley, detransforms, and pulls out her phone to call Alya. She still hasn’t apologized, and with a battle with Chat on the horizon… well, anything could happen. Chat is a good fighter. 

 

Unfortunately, Alya doesn’t pick up, even though Marinette knows she’s never away from her phone. She leaves a message anyway.

 

“Hey, Alya, um… I’ve had a couple really terrible days, and I just wanted to say, um… I’m sorry? I still don’t really want to talk about it, but, yeah, I do want to apologize, and I thought maybe you could come over and we could talk or something. We could make it a sleepover even. Anyway, call me when you get this. Bye.” Marinette has never been good at leaving messages on the machine, but at least she didn’t start crying in the middle of it. She sighs and begins walking toward home. 

 

10 seconds later, her phone buzzes with a text from Alya.  _ Be there in 10. _

***

Marinette vaults in through the roof and only barely manages to get down to the door to let Alya in without waking her parents. She puts a finger to her lips and gestures for Alya to follow. When they finally get up to her room, Marinette closes the door, puts on her most contrite face, and turns to face her friend.

 

“I’m sorry, Alya. I had a bad day,” she apologizes again.

 

“It’s okay. We all have bad days. But I’m telling you, I’m going to figure out your secret one day.”

 

Marinette smiles a little, “I’m sure you will.” And just like that, she was forgiven. 

  
They spend the entire night awake, just talking. Marinette lets Alya pick the topics, which means they talk about Ladybug a lot. For once, Marinette doesn’t mind - she likes hearing about her wondrous feats and all her good qualities. It makes her feel slightly better about the fact that she has probably made a decision that will change how everyone sees Ladybug - sees  _ her _ \- even though she knows in her heart that she couldn’t have made a different one. Papillon is just another poor victim who needs her help. The fact that he also happens to be Adrien has nothing to do with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A nice long update to make up for some of the shorter ones recently. We're getting close to the end folks - just bear with me a little longer!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final showdown between Ladybug and Chat Noir - will she realize who he is before it's too late?

Marinette finds it hard to follow through on her threat. In the next few akuma fights she joins Chat almost out of habit. She tries to convince him to give her his ring after each one but he still refuses, barely even listening to her arguments anymore. It's clear she is getting nowhere and so when the latest victim throws a piece of paper at her with a request for a meeting from Papillon, she knows what’s coming.

 

“What are you waiting for?” Papillon hisses through his moths.

 

“I- I thought if I talked to him, explained the situation… Chat trusts me, I thought…”

 

“Well, clearly you thought _wrong_ ,” he grumbles.

 

“I know,” she says, hanging her head. Papillon paces a little, a few solitary moths fluttering to keep up.

 

“Ok. New plan. I’ll akumatize someone. I’ll make sure they turn into something really helpful, and then we’ll _take_ Chat’s akuma.”

 

“Isn’t that just your old plan?” Marinette says, before realizing what that would actually mean, “And you _promised_ I could do it. I don’t want him getting hurt!”

 

“But _you’re_ not getting it done!” roars Papillon whirling on her, “You don’t keep up your end of the bargain, I don’t keep up mine.”

 

“No!” Marinette yells back, unsure where she’s getting the strength to stand up to him, “You don’t keep up your end of the bargain, and I _walk_ . You know you can’t get them without me. You’ve been trying for an entire year, and you still can’t do it. You _need_ me, and so you will not. Touch. Chat!”

 

They stare each other down for a few tense moments. Papillon blinks first.

 

“Fine,” he says, “Have it your way. But there will be an akuma tomorrow. And you _will_ fight on my side.” He jabs a finger at her for punctuation, and she waves a hand through the moths instinctively.

 

“Fine,” she replies. Really, she’s suspected this was coming ever since the deal was made, but it still hurts to think about it. She really doesn’t want to fight Chat. She’s already trying to come up with ways that she can get around it, ways that she could sneak up on him, or find some other way to, well, temporarily incapacitate him without hurting him. She would ask Tikki, but she doesn’t want to have that conversation. She’s managed to put off her questions - she’s asked Tikki to transform her far more often than there have been akumas recently, and explained it away as following a lead on who Papillon is (which is technically true, she supposes). Luckily Tikki doesn’t seem to remember anything from during the transformation or the game would be up.

 

That night Marinette barely sleeps. She tosses and turns, images of first Chat getting hurt, and then Adrien in pain rotating behind her eyelids. How can she possibly choose between the two boys who mean the most to her - her best friend and her crush?

 

***

Papillon’s akuma is hard to miss. He comes stomping into the park, screaming “I am Le Resurrecteur!” about halfway through the day. Marinette has been trying to catch up on homework all day, since it’s Saturday, and secretly hoping that the akuma would take a victim far enough away that she could say she never heard about him. But with the akuma practically in her backyard, she doesn’t have much choice. With a heavy sigh she opens her purse.

 

“Transform me, Tikki,” she says, and moments later she is heading out the roof.

 

The first thing she notices about this akuma is that he’s not alone. Much like the Marionettiste, he has the ability to bring back formerly akumatised victims, forcing them to work together.

 

“Overkill, much?” she mutters under her breath, but she goes and stands near him anyway, trying not to look like they are together.

 

Seconds later, Chat shows up - and he is not alone either. He’s followed by Volpina - the real Volpina? Marinette is too far away to tell - as well as two other masked miraculous holders, one in yellow, and one in green. She smiles a little. At least Chat has backup.

 

Except then Resurrecteur points to each of them in turn. Seconds later, Chat’s back up is transformed into Lady Wifi, Antibug, and Le Bubbleur. Marinette’s face falls, though she has the fleeting thought of _Really, Chat? Chloe?_ And then the battle begins and there is no time for thinking. It’s all a blur, and Marinette is just trying to get to Chat before anyone else does.

 

Seconds before she reaches him, a car flies over her head, and pins him to the ground.

“Chat! No!” she screams. She tries to pull it off him, but it won’t budge. It was thrown with such force that there’s a small crater around it, and Chat is pinned up to his chest.

 

“Chat!” she wails again, feeling for a pulse. His lips twitch, and his eyes open slowly. Marinette moves her hand to cup his cheek.

 

“I knew you'd come back to me, milady,” he whispers with a faint smile. A trickle of blood runs out of the corner of his mouth as he speaks. She tries to smile back but she’s fighting tears.

 

“What no puns?” she asks, her throat closing up from the urge to cry, but trying to be strong for him.

 

“You know,” he grunts softly, “I think this thing crushed my funny bone.” She gives him a watery laugh.

 

“I’m sorry, Chat,” she apologizes.

 

“It’s okay,” he says. And then he’s gone, probably unconscious from the pain, but not far from death. Marinette stays kneeling there, paralyzed with indecision. Finally, upon realizing that if the paramedics _do_ come to rescue him it is probably better for him to be a civilian anyway, so that nobody knows who Chat is if-- _when_ he lives, she reaches for the ring on his hand.

 

The moment it is free from her finger, she sees a green flash of light from under the car. She knows she should look away, let him have his privacy, but she can’t quite bring herself to do it. She needs to see the face of the one she betrayed, even if it means that he will never forgive her.

 

And then her world falls apart.

 

The person lying under the car isn’t some stranger. Somehow, impossibly, it’s Adrien. The boy that she’s in love with, the boy she thought she was helping all along. That realization finally sends the tears spilling over her cheeks. She can’t hold it in anymore. Her insides are shaking and she’s rocking back and forth, her hands over her mouth, watching the dark red blood seep into his white shirt in disbelief until she can’t see for all the tears. She mourns for what feels like forever, though it can’t possibly be more than a few moments.

 

“Do you have it?” Papillon asks from behind her. Now that she knows he isn’t Adrien she can hear the differences in his voice. She stands slowly and turns to face him - for once he came out in person, and without the moths obscuring his face, she can tell that he looks nothing like Adrien.

 

“Yes,” she admits finally, “but you will _never_ have it.” And with that, she slips the ring on her already transformed fingers.

 

Later, she would never be able to recall what happened in the next few minutes, but eyewitnesses say that it looked like she exploded. That there was a blinding flash of light and when they could see again, Papillon and all of his akumas were gone. That Ladybug stood in a crater as large as the park. And that afterward, she rescued a blonde-haired boy from under a car she shouldn’t have been able to lift, and cradled him as she carried him away from the scene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not usually someone who writes to a soundtrack, but this chapter comes from an imagined final battle trailer that is accompanied by "Live Like Legends" by Ruelle.


	8. Chapter 8

Marinette comes back to herself in front of Master Fu’s door, as Chat Noir’s ring gives out and she detransforms halfway. Suddenly Adrien’s body in her arms is too heavy and instead of knocking she slumps heavily against the doorway, trying to keep Adrien from any further damage. The numbness that was both miraculouses slips away and there are tears in her eyes, but she can’t spare a hand to wipe them away.

 

She doesn’t know how long she stands like that, supporting Adrien, and supported by the wall, but eventually the door swings open. 

 

“Fix it,” she says, but it comes out halfway between a gasp and a whisper, “Please.” The tears start falling, dripping off her nose onto Adrien’s pale face. 

 

Master Fu steps out of the way and she staggers into his living room. She lays Adrien gently on the thin mattress on the floor, and then crumples beside him. “Please,” she whispers, again, her voice breaking.

 

She barely follows what happens next. Master Fu waves his hands, and maybe chants, or gives Adrien some kind of concoction. She just holds Adrien’s hand and hopes. Minutes or maybe hours later, Master Fu puts a hand on her shoulder.

 

“We should let him sleep,” he says, and he guides her to the kitchen. He moves around, but Marinette doesn’t pay attention to what he’s doing until he hands her a warm cup of tea. 

 

“Now,” he says, soothingly, “Tell me what happened.”

 

“I- I…” she stutters, and then it comes all pouring out. How she thought, because of what he’d told her about the book, that she knew who Papillon was, and when she went looking for proof, she’d found what she was looking for even though it was wrong. How she’d thought she could help, but all she did was make it much, much worse. 

 

“This is all my fault,” she ends up sobbing. Master Fu just calmly hands her a handkerchief, and lets her cry.

 

Finally, when she’s calmed down somewhat, he lays a comforting hand on hers.

 

“We all make mistakes, Ladybug,” he says, “The miraculouses do not take away our humanity. If anything, they strengthen it. Sometimes they make our mistakes even bigger.” She wails at this, but he presses on.

 

“But that’s okay, Ladybug. We have to make the mistakes. They can teach us lessons that we would never learn if we didn’t make them. It’s what we  _ do _ with those lessons that shows us who we are - who we  _ really _ are - mask or no mask.”

 

Finally, she looks up at him. Her eyes are still watery, and her skin around the mask almost matches its shade of red, but she is able to take a few deep breaths.

 

“Is he- Is he going to be ok?” she asks.

 

“Yes, Ladybug. It was a close thing, but you got here right in time.”

 

“I thought he was dead.”

 

“He would have been if you’d taken him to a normal hospital. But, being a miraculous wielder puts you in extraordinary danger sometimes. It’s only fitting that we have a way to… fix… whatever harm might come to you. Otherwise, we’d be looking for new miraculous wielders far too often.”

 

“And… Papillon?” she asks. Master Fu smiles. He crosses the room to a box on a table next to an old record player. His back shields her from seeing him open it, but he turns around holding a brooch in the shape of a butterfly. A few seconds later, a tiny purple kwami pops into existence.

 

“Ladybug, meet Nooroo,” Master Fu announces.

 

“Ladybug!” the kwami squeaks, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have saved me!”

 

“I-- what?” she says. He flies over and cuddles her cheek.

 

“But, how can you--? Without-- I thought you had to claim the jewel to--” She can’t seem to formulate a proper sentence.

 

“There are many things about the miraculouses you do not know,” Master Fu says gravely, “and you do not need to know them yet.” Nooroo gives her cheek one last squeeze before flying back to the brooch and disappearing inside with a pop. Master Fu replaces the jewel in the box and gently closes the lid.

 

“So I guess we’ll never know who he actually was, will we?” she says.

 

“Probably not,” Master Fu agrees.

 

Suddenly there’s a groan from the other room. Marinette jumps up and then pauses, uncertain. 

 

“Go to him,” Master Fu says quietly, “You need to talk.”

 

***

Adrien is sitting up, cradling his ribs gently and wincing.

 

“You’re alright!” Marinette exclaims, and she only just stops herself from flinging her arms around him.

 

“Ladybug!” he exclaims, “You… but I… but…” he looks confused. Marinette just smiles at him, glad that he’s alive. 

 

Then she realizes the importance of the conversation they’re about to have. Her smile slips off her face as she looks down at the now-silver ring on her finger. She slips it off gently, and then offers it to him.

 

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, and that doesn’t feel like nearly enough but she doesn’t know what else to say.

 

“You…” he looks from the ring in her hand up to her masked face, “You know.”

 

Marinette closes her eyes. The decision that comes next is one of the hardest of her life. The right thing to do, she’s pretty sure, is to let him know who she is, but that means telling him the whole story,  _ including _ the part where she has a massive crush on him. She’s pretty sure he would understand if she chose not to reveal herself, but she’s also pretty sure that that would be unfair of her.

 

“Milady?” he asks, after she’s been quiet for too long. She takes a deep breath, opens her eyes, and releases her transformation. His eyes widen in shock.

 

“Now you do too,” she says. 

 

“Marinette?” he asks. She smiles faintly. “But-- you’ve been right there…” he trails off and then reaches for her face. As hard as it is, Marinette ducks. It would be too easy to let him kiss her and pretend that everything is okay, when it is very much not. She can’t let him act on his feelings without knowing all the facts.

 

And so, for the second time that day, she relates everything that has happened over the past week. Adrien is a wonderful audience - he winces in all the right places, and gets an adorable look of confusion on his face when she glosses over the part where she decides to help “him” as she thinks he’s Papillon - not that she’ll be explaining that one any time soon.

 

“So… I’m sorry,” she finishes, “I’m sorry for everything, I’m sorry I thought that you could possibly be the one behind all the akuma attacks, and I’m sorry for betraying you.” He smiles.

 

“I forgive you,” he answers, and reaches for her again.

 

“No!” she exclaims, leaning out of his reach, “You  _ shouldn’t _ .”

  
“But I do,” he argues, and finally she lets him kiss her. Everything inside her tells her this is wrong, that he shouldn’t forgive her this easily, and that this will not fix anything. But at the same time, this is exactly what she has wanted for such a long time, and she can’t keep denying it. She lets herself get lost in the kiss, in the feel and taste of him, and for the first time in days it feels like everything might just be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys! I've really enjoyed working out this puzzle of where that opening idea would take it, and I sincerely appreciate every single comment I've gotten!
> 
> I'm considering doing a companion fic from Chat Noir's perspective. It would overlap with this one a little and then extend into the next week or so, dealing with the fallout of what happened in this fic. Would people be interested in reading that?


End file.
